Amazon

I caught a repeat of "Dragon's Den" the other day on "Dave" (a digital satelite channel) and someone had come up with some smart software that gave suggestions for books you might be interested in. The idea was trashed because of Amazon's stranglehold on buying books. It reminded me of an article I read some years ago about Amazon. Bezos or whatever his name is that runs Amazon is/was considered a business guru... so how come when Amazon started up during the dotcom boom it lost millions of dollars... like 100s of millions and did so for years. I presume investors poored a fortune into it to keep it going. It made me think... Why? How can you be considered a business genius when the company you run loses a fortune? I find it very strange... and then I thought a bit more and you know what it seems to boil down to one thing. Branding and the consumer's impression of the business. The company can be total shite but as long as you have your image spot on the chances of success are multiplied. More on this later...